Council keeps 'name change' consultant

INNISFIL — Innisfil council is sticking with the “name-change” consultant as it enters the next phase of the town’s strategic guide, Inspiring Innisfil 2020.
The same consulting firm will take on the new phase of public consultation this spring.
But Coun. Lynn Dollin is concerned the public may be jaded after the Inspiring Innisfil consultants shocked the community in May 2011 with a proposal to change the town’s name.
“When the name change came up a lot of people thought they were betrayed,” Dollin said. “Can we bring the same people back? I’m worried about the consultants losing credibility over that decision.”
Only Dollin and Coun. Bill Loughead voted in favour of finding another consultant to give Inspiring Innisfil a “fresh set of eyes”.
The name-change bombshell, which was announced out of the blue at council presentation, created a groundswell of opposition from residents. Council quickly killed the idea, saying the community outrage showed how much Innisfil residents care about their town.
“It was a little wrinkle, we had a bump in the road,” Coun. Ken Simpson said. “We didn’t want to change the name. This was a recommendation that came before us. People got upset and I’m glad they did. In the end we made the right decision.”
An organization in Atlanta Georgia, which hosts the Transforming Local Government Conference, patted Innisfil on the back for the name-change idea, calling it “shock therapy”.
The organization’s website states: “We discovered that when you want change and wish to awaken passion in your community sometimes ‘shock therapy’ is an option. A provocative suggestion to change the name of the town was a defining moment in the community building process for the Town of Innisfil. This single suggestion spawned a groundswell of momentum of engaged citizens, who previously had little confidence that their opinions mattered or would lead to actual outcomes.”
Town CAO John Skorobohacz defended the consultant’s methods, saying the point of Inspiring Innisfil 2020 was to create “bold initiatives”.
“If we want to be different there is some risk that is associated with that,” he told council. “Are we going to stumble? Sure — but we learn form that. If we didn’t want to be bold, than we should go with the same old, same old that other people have already done.”
Skorobohacz said the town “has enjoyed quite a bit of success” by using Inspiring Innisfil as a guiding document for council and the town staff.
“Usually these things lose their luster as time moves on and are put on the shelf,” he said.